MIT PROFESSOR: 10 Predictions About The World My Grandchildren Will Inherit

http://www.businessinsider.com/daron-acemoglus-predictions-2012-4

Daron Acemoglu, an economist at MIT, pondered this question as he awaited the birth of his son. His new paper considers political, social and economic trends from the past hundred years and then makes projections for the future.

Acemoglu offers a dark vision of rising inequality and pollution, but he also sees positives like improving healthcare.

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Global pollution will get much worse

Industrialization in China means that CO2 emissions and climate change could get much worse. The only way to slow this down would be a mass transfer to clean energy...a tall order that would be nearly impossible without a global agreement. Clean energy doesn't have enough market share to thrive now, and more pollution could lead to destruction.

The middle class will keep diminishing

Better technologies will help the rich make better profits. Meanwhile, as Chinese workers require higher wages, demand for cheap labor will increase. This means that economic growth will become increasingly uneven and the gap between the haves and have-nots will be greater than ever.

We'll have automated cars

Much like this century, the next 100 years will have see a host of technological inventions ranging from automated cars to better medications. There is little evidence we are running out of innovations and the landscape will continue to change as drastically as it has so far.